Brave Frontier

Brave Frontier
Developer(s)	A-Lim
Publisher(s)	JP A-Lim WW Gumi
Director(s)	Eiji Takahashi
Producer(s)	Eiji Takahashi Hisatoshi Hayakashi
Artist(s)	Yutaka Ebishima
Writer(s)	Hiroshi Sasako
Composer(s)	Hikoshi Hashimoto
Platforms	iOS Android Amazon Kindle Fire Windows Phone 8 Windows 8 Windows 10
Release date(s)	iOS Android Kindle Fire Windows Phone 8 Windows 8 Windows 10
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Brave Frontier (ブレイブフロンティア, Bureibu Furontia) is a Japanese mobile role-playing game developed and published by A-Lim, originally for Apple's iOS and later for Android and Kindle Fire. It was first released in Japan by A-Lim on July 3, 2013, and later released worldwide by Gumi Asia on December 13, 2013.

Gameplay

The game follows similarly to Square Enix's Valkyrie Profile in terms of game mechanics. Within their first play, players must enter their name and choose their starting unit before proceeding to the tutorial and into the main game itself. The player has a choice between a Selena (Water), Vargas (Fire), Lance (Earth) and Eze (Thunder) (there are two more types of units, Atro and Magress, but these are not available as starter-units). Each unit has its own elemental attributes: Water is strong against Fire, Fire is strong against Earth, Earth is strong against Thunder, Thunder is strong against Water, and both Dark and Light are strong and weak against each other. Officially the storyline of the game focuses on the unnamed summoner and must clear every stage and level in one area to proceed. Gameplay is officially relied through touch controls, with the upper area on the screen shows both the player units and enemies, the bottom area shows the unit's status and item. Players are allowed to bring only 5 units in each stage with one "friend" unit selecting them in each mission. These units/users become "friend" units through friend requests, and because a new user does not have "friend" units yet, the game provides them with 4-5 random users from around the world to choose from. Touching one unit allows it to attack an enemy before him and taking him down rewards the player with Zel, Brave Burst Crystals, Heart Crystals and Items. Touching the enemy before attacking allows the player to focus its attack on the targeted enemy itself. After an enemy is defeated, the player can proceed to a next stage until it encounters a boss, which is required to be killed in order to clear one level. After clearing, players are rewarded with Zel, Karma and items, as well as acquiring units from each mission. The guest unit can also be added to the friends list in order to activate its abilities. Also, if a player cleared the entire area, it'll be rewarded with one gem. However, if the player failed a quest, he will be prompted to use one gem to continue.

An interesting feature in the game is the ability to execute special attacks, known as Brave Bursts. When touching the player unit long enough and swiping it upwards, it can unleash powerful attacks that could damage enemies or inflict status ailments. Some Brave Bursts can also heal player unit's health points or increase its overall stats so it can have an advantage against its enemies. Super Brave Bursts can also be executed but only if a unit is in a 6 Star Ranking and has its normal Brave Burst level maxed out (above level 10). Once the unit has the ability to use a Super Brave Burst, the BB Gauge must be filled twice (so the bar appears gold in color) and the player must swipe right (compared to swiping up for a normal Brave Burst). Another version, called Ultimate Brave Bursts are implemented in the game, but only can be executed by 7-Star and Omni Evolution Units by filling the Overdrive gauge.

To level up a Brave Burst, one must fuse units they gain during quests that have the same type of Brave Burst, i.e. a healing Brave Burst must be fused with another healing Brave Burst in order to level up, an attack Brave Burst must be fused with another attack Brave Burst, a stat-change Brave Burst must be fused with another stat-change brave burst, and so on. In unit-terms, a Healer unit would be fused with a Healer unit, like Healer "Meridth" with Healer "Time Mage Claris", for example. Another method is the usage of "Burst Frogs" which allow a guaranteed Brave Burst level up, unlike the aforementioned method which only allows a slight chance of attaining another BB level

Aside from quests, the player can also fuse units with the ones obtained in each mission in order to level them up. Once a unit is now in its max level, is it now capable of evolving. However this said evolution requires certain units for it to level up. Each unit has its own ranking as well, with the Omni Evolution being the highest. Some units such as Metal Ghosts allows players to obtain more experience for the units that were being fused. More units can also be obtained through Honor Summons and Rare Summons, each requiring certain amount of gems and Honor Points in order to summon units. Players also can sell units for money or equip them with stat increasing Spheres and by Gems through micro transactions.

Certain items can also be used to synthesize into useful items, such as potions, tonics, and revives. Spheres are also being made in the same fashion, used to increase a unit's overall stats. The town provides a lot of items used for these, however some items must be obtained through each dungeon cleared by the player. Another thing is the town can provide more important items if the player upgrade each establishments using the obtained amount of karma.

Aside from the main quests, Brave Frontier has certain event quests inside the Vortex Gate, allowing them to obtain evolutionary units, Zel or promotional rare units not found in Rare Summons. Certain dungeons, such as Metal Parades and Jewel Parades, all require a certain key to unlock and can only last for an hour. Certain In-Game Events are also found in the Vortex Gate as well, and the player will be rewarded with a free unit if he clears it but some dungeons, there's a chance to get the free unit (most likely the boss of the dungeon) and in those dungeons there are levels. The higher the level, the more difficult it gets. Also, players can challenge others players in the arena for them to rise up their ranks and obtain certain items. Another feature in the game is both the Frontier Hunter trials, which allows players to raise their Hunter Ranks, Raid Battles, a Slot Machine Feature, Daily Missions and Grand Quest.

Story

The series is set in the fictional world of Grand Gaia, a world ravaged by war between both Humans and Gods. Though being an extinct world, it is surrounded by a veil of mystery and havoc as certain places contains a sealed God that tried to destroy humans. Randall, the imperial capital of Elgaia is investigating a lot of unexplained activity in Grand Gaia and how they will cause destruction once again if it is not taken care of. In all of these troubles, a savior from another world came...

Characters

The story focuses on an unnamed summoner, summoned by God of the Gate, Lucius, who pleads to him to save Grand Gaia from destruction. After arriving in Grand Gaia, the player first meets Lucius's adviser and Goddess, Tilith, who guides the player throughout Grand Gaia in order to restore the balance in the world and protect everyone against the Fallen Gods. Along the way, the player encounters certain people who assists in their quest to save the world. In the first land of Mistral, the player encounters two summoners from Elgaia: Karl, an axe-wielding male summoner who is supportive to the player and Seria, a sharp-tongued swordswoman who is very harsh towards both the player and Tilith, yet has a caring personality. Both of them are searching for Graham, under orders from the Akras Summoners' Hall to bring him to justice. Both of them also help the player in stopping the Four Fallen Gods from causing havoc to Grand Gaia. As the game progresses, they are tasked to defeat the Four Fallen Gods, Maxwell in Mistral, Cardes in Palmyna, Zevalhua in Agni Region and Afla Dilith in Vriksha. After which, Eriole and Tesla have to be defeated too in Atharva. Finally, the world of Grand Gaia comes to a close, with the team finding out Lucius' true intent and blaming Tilith for not informing them earlier on what was to come. They have no choice but to slay Lucius in Bariura. This action results in the release of the seal to the Ishgria underworld.

Alongside the two, the player also encounters Lugina, a summoner and leader of the 23rd Demon Slayers Division "Sky Guardians" who is very boastful of his abilities and his mission and Paris, an Imperial Guard serving as bodyguard to the imperial family of the Randall Empire who is very calm and takes orders from Eriole, the leader of the Imperial Guards and the series's secondary antagonist. Alongside him is a mysterious man named Arc who is also Lucius's disciple. On the Player's way to Palmyna, he encountered "Elder Grah" Grahdens, one of the Summoner Elders who manages the Defense Bureau who is old and wise; seeing the player as the only savior of Grand Gaia and the one who can defeat the Fallen Gods.

Development

The game was first announced after the Gaming Company A-Lim is officially registered in March 2013. The company, formed from the combined efforts of Gumi Ventures, B-Dash Ventures, and Fuji Startup Ventures, a company owned by Fuji TV. Hironao Kunimitsu officially stated that the company would have "key advantage over other game-makers in the market." Hisatoshi Hayakashi, the game's executive producer stated that the game was inspired from various RPG games such as Final Fantasy, Valkyrie Profile, Romancing SaGa, Star Ocean and the Tales series; Hayashi explained, "Originally, we wanted to have players walk around towns and dungeons, but then we thought about mobile devices and small screens and suddenly, knowing how far you were into a dungeon was quite scary, and walking in towns was not as enjoyable as it should be. But I am convinced that if we can somehow represent the fact that players are walking around cities and dungeons, talking to people and fighting monsters, all on a mobile device, they will really get into the RPG world."

The game was released on iOS in July 3, 2013 and received many positive reviews upon its initial release. Due to its success, the game officially received an Android release later in the year, followed by a worldwide release on December 13, 2013.

Promotional units

Following the game's release, several promotional in-game units were released exclusively in both Japanese and global versions of the game, including crossover units from magazines such as Famitsu and other smartphone games such as Emperors SaGa, Deemo, Puzzle Trooper, Rise of Mana, Secret of Mana and the Tales series. The developers also collaborated with other media franchises such as Crypton Future Media's Vocaloid mascot Hatsune Miku and the film series The Hobbit.

Music

The game's music was composed by Hikoshi Hashimoto, who once composed music on various Sega games. The game's official soundtrack, titled Brave Frontier: Original Soundtrack (ブレイブ・フロンティア オリジナルサウンドトラック, Bureibu Furontia Orijinaru Saundotorakku) was released in Japan by Sony Music Entertainment Japan on July 23, 2014.

Reception

Gamezebo gave the game a generally positive review, stating that "It's got its heart in the right place aspiring to be like the Final Fantasy or Xenoblade series, but it’s still caught up in the platform paradigms we know all too well. In other words, it’s fine for its time, just not timeless." The global version of the game became the most downloaded game on both Android and iOS platforms with a total of 10 million downloads as of August 2014.

External links

• Official website (Japanese)